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The gender pay gap is spilling into KiwiSaver balances – and it's a worry

Women are contributing less into KiwiSaver than men, have lower average balances and are less likely to have other investments that can pay for their retirement, new Westpac NZ research reveals.

The bank surveyed more than a thousand KiwiSaver members to glean the insights, which found a higher proportion of women weren't contributing to the retirement scheme at all.

Nearly a third of women in the survey have less than $5000 in their KiwiSaver accounts (compared with 19 per cent of men) while only 4 per cent had more than $50,000 (compared with 13 per cent of men).

"What we're hearing is that more men have larger amounts of money put aside, and are contributing to KiwiSaver at a higher rate, than women. Furthermore, 52 per cent of men told us they had other investments to help fund their retirement, compared to just 39 per cent of women.

"It's a worry when you consider a woman born in 2000 has a life expectancy of 92 years, compared with 89.6 years for a male born in the same year. Women need more money in retirement, not less."Only a quarter of women in the survey had estimated the amount of money they would need in retirement compared to 38 per cent of men.